I don’t want to insult anyone’s intelligence here, but if you’ve never cut up a fresh pineapple, I’d love to show you a quick and easy way to do it!

Jamie and I took a Costa Rican cooking class during our honeymoon years ago, and one thing the chef showed up was an incredibly easy way to cut up a pineapple. I’ve been using her technique ever since!

Let’s get to it! You’ll be saying goodbye to those overpriced grocery store pre-cut pineapple containers in no time. For roughly $2 and five minutes of your time, you’ll have a big container of fruit that your family will be munching on for days!

How to cut a pineapple

Step One: Twist off the “hair”/top of the pineapple and throw away.

Step Two: Lay pineapple horizontally on a cutting board and slice off both ends.

To keep things as clean as possible, throw away scraps as you go. I like to keep the trashcan nearby and swipe scraps in as we go!

Step three: Stand pineapple up and begin to cut vertically, shaving off the outer layer of the pineapple.

Your goal is to keep as much meat on the pineapple as possible while still shaving off the “eyes” as seen below.

{After my first initial slice, I still have many “eyes” remaining. After cutting around the whole pineapple, I will go back and quickly shave these off. Easy!}

Your pineapple should look something like this after shaving all the way around and cutting off the eyes.

Step four: Keep pineapple upright and cut four slices vertically around the core.

Below is a grid to show where and how you will cut. You will throw the core away as seen in the next few photos.

Make your first slice and then work your way around, making four slices total.

The piece upright is your core. Throw away.

Step five: Cube and serve!

To recap | how to cut a pineapple

Step One: Twist off the “hair”/top of the pineapple and throw away.

Step Two: Lay pineapple horizontally on a cutting board and slice off both ends.

Step three: Stand pineapple up and begin to cut vertically, shaving off the outer layer of the pineapple.

Step four: Keep pineapple upright and cut four slices vertically around the core.

Our family has had professional photography taken numerous times since starting our family, and every single time the same thing happens: I initially struggle to justify spending the money (because the best photographers are never the cheapest, rightfully so), but then I beam with absolute delight over the images we get in return. They are typically far better than what I imagined, and I’m left feeling so incredibly grateful that I didn’t talk myself out of spending the money on photography.

Investing in the best photographers has always proven so worth it, and we’re given the gift of magical moments captured that we’ll never be able to get back.

These images right here are priceless to us. They make me so, so happy! Even Jamie teared up when he saw them. I shared in Jillian’s birth story about how our photographer didn’t make it in time to photograph the actual birth due to Jillian’s rapid exit, but you better believe she came barreling in ready to stand back and capture the magic of meeting and getting to know our newest little family member.

I’m not sure Jamie did skin-to-skin time following Hadley’s birth, but he did with Sadie, and then did so with Jillian. This helped keep her body temperature up and was sweet time for the two of them to initially bond.

That baby booty! This picture of Jamie handing Jillian to me made me squeal. Those details! So tiny!

And here comes Hadley, Sadie, Grandma, and Grandpa. I love this picture of Sadie, but what I really love is my mom in the background. I didn’t notice her in this picture until I flipped through them for the third time, and seeing her reaction as she walked in and saw Jillian in my arms makes me heart explode. So raw and so special.

I had waited for this moment for so long, to have all of my girls together. I boohooed like a big baby when they walked over to my hospital bed! I love seeing my mom in the background. She was so considerate to give our little family time to meet Jillian before they came over too, even though I know she was dying to run over and see that baby!

Jamie and I gifted Hadley and Sadie with personalized “big sister” necklaces with their first initial on them, and they loved it. They both still wearing their necklaces all the time.

There’s something about a grandpa and his granddaughters.

Two things I love about the picture below: how Jamie is taking care of me and my dad with his arms around my mom.

I don’t know a single kid who can resist spinning around in a doctor’s chair.

They wore the sweetest big sister dresses embroidered by a dear blog reader and wonderful business owner of Threads Together. She is reasonably priced, incredibly kind, and very talented. I highly recommend her for your personalization needs.

She also made this shirt below!

I’m actually glad it took a couple of months to arrange to get these photos from my photographer because reliving all of this two months later was pretty awesome.

Christine, our photographer, also took some “Fresh 48” photos of just Jamie, me, and Jillian about 24 hours after she was born. I’m excited to get those back in a couple days and share a few of them here soon!

About a year ago we started discussing our interest in doing a bit of a living room refresh, and just last week we finally bit the bullet and got our big pieces ordered! Wheeeee! It took a hot minute to save the moolah, but a lot of things took priority ahead of a new, “unnecessary” sofa. 😉

Our open concept living area, which includes our kitchen, eating area, and living room, is absolutely the heart of our home, so creating a warm, inviting space that’s comfortable and functional is really important to me. We use this space for so many things, so I want to fill it in a way that works for raising young children but that also works for the adults that happen to live in this house too. We’re the ones forkin’ over the dough, so we still matter. 😉

Here’s the current situation. Obviously not bad at all! We are sooooo grateful for the pieces of furniture my in-laws handed down to us years ago to help us get by, but after almost nine years of marriage, we are ready to finally buy ourselves something new.

This room is tricky to decorate though because of a corner fireplace and a large kitchen bar nearby.

I was struggling to figure out which kind of furniture arrangement would work best in this space for our family, and none of the arrangements I was finding via Google search and Pinterest were helping me pinpoint any plans.

At some point around the time we declared our intentions to do a living room overhaul ago I saw an ad on Instagram for Modsy, an online interior decorating website. After poking around on the site, I figured out that I could pay a one-time fee of around $55ish for a designer to put together a variety of living room layouts.

I was super intrigued by this concept, so I paid the money, created a profile (complete with room dimensions, pictures, etc.), and waited not-so-patiently for the first couple layouts to hit my inbox (I believe it took about two weeks). I couldn’t wait to see what someone else would come up with that I hopefully hadn’t thought of before.

Modsy started by giving me two layouts and then requested feedback to apply to the next layout.

Here’s the first option. My immediate reaction to this layout was that we needed a big sofa and not just two loveseats. We like to lay down on the couch as well as pile our whole family on it when we watch movies.

PS: Isn’t it incredible how the mock-up of the room looks EXACTLY like my house?! Incredible!

And here’s the second option. My immediate reaction to this one was that I loved how open it made the room but that we needed more seating than this option offers. Plus, only 3-4 people would be able to see the TV at a time.

I ended up receiving a total of six designs – one at a time after the first two – that built upon the feedback I was giving. Here are some of those layouts!

When I expressed my interested in a soda with a chaise as well as seating for 6+ people:

When I expressed my interest in a style change from traditional to glam:

When I asked for less black:

And finally, when I couldn’t get the sectional and chaise out of my head, I asked for them to find one that would fit our room:

For the last few months, I’ve kept these layout options in the back of my mind until we had the allotted amount of money saved. Once we had the money saved, I got serious about studying dimensions of different pieces online, visiting stores in-person to test options such as cushion fill and fabric, and moving furniture around like CRAZY to finally figure out once and for all what we wanted to invest in.

For a whole list of reasons that I’ll share in a future post, we selected a layout similar to this one from Modsy.

We’re going to keep the couch in the suggested spot, but eliminate the chaise. Where you see the oversized teal chair we are going to put two spindle chairs side by side.

And finally, instead of having two small chairs in front of the window we’re just going to have one medium-sized swivel chair that can rotate to see the TV if necessary.

I can’t wait for it to all come together! Stay tuned!

Modsy Review

In conclusion, my opinion of Modsy is HIGHLY favorable. I can’t believe clients are allowed an unlimited amount of layout ideas! I appreciate that everything they use in the designs are products that could actually be purchased online, making it easy to replicate that exact design.

The $55 was well spent in my opinion because it saved me from purchasing things that I may not have been satisfied with in the future. It also saved me time by giving me a launching pad for the design we ultimately ended up landing on.

I have no doubt in my mind that I’ll be using Modsy again, likely for the girls’ bonus room. It’s a very large space with so much potential, and I’m looking forward to seeing the many different combinations a designer could come up with to maximize the space for our little women.

Here is a super quick video to show you the behind-the-scenes of my Modsy dashboard and all of the many angles you get to see of the layouts!

Let’s chat!

Could you see this service being useful for you? Which room in your house would you love the help from an online designer?

PS: If you’d like to get set up with Modsy, here is a referral link! I believe you get 20% off of your design package by using my link. This post is not sponsored in any form or fashion.

Hi friends! How is your week going? Have any of you grabbed a Pumpkin Spice Latte yet? I heard they came out Tuesday, the earliest they’ve ever started serving them. I think I’m one of the only women in the country that hasn’t ever had one. Ha! I didn’t start enjoying coffee until two years ago and was super intimidated until recently to order coffee at a coffee shop, mainly because I was scared I would order something I didn’t actually like. I now enjoy most coffee (except black), so I’m hoping to swing by and grab one soon just for the heck of it!

Anyway, let’s jump into another “slice of life”.

We recently had some very close relatives from Seattle come spend a week in our area, and my aunt could not have been more adorable with the girls. I think I speak for most moms when it comes to how much you appreciate those who are hands-on with your children. My aunt not only got in lots of baby snuggles with Jillian, but she also took time to play games with Sadie (while Hadley was in school) and work with her on some educational stuff. Seeing other people give their energy to my kids doing things my kids want to do means more to me than I could ever say.

During their visit, Jamie and I hosted a big mid-week dinner to get everyone together. Jamie grilled chicken as soon as he got home from work, and I whipped together some homemade mac and cheese, roasted sweet potato fries, and a spinach salad. My sister also brought a few things, and it was the best night. The house was loud with lots of people, which is often just the way I like it. It means people are happy and having a good time, and if you know my heart for having people gather in my home, you know how much joy this brings me. This is my favorite picture from the night, snapped by my sister, of my dad’s ice cream cone being hijacked by all of his grandkids. He didn’t mind.

Jillian was getting tired before everyone left, so Jamie went ahead and quickly gave her a bath. It turned into a show for all the cousins and adults alike! We joke that she’s the current family celebrity because everybody is all about her right now!

These girls really love having their fingers and toes painted, so occasionally taking them to the nail salon is a luxury they go crazy over. Our local place does super cute pedis for them for $15 a piece, which include the hot towels, foot scrub, and more. They both nervously smile the entire time and beam when they get to show me their toes.

One of the highlights of my LIFE lately was welcoming one of my absolute favorite humans to Alabama for a long-weekend visit! Jessica and I taught English on the same hallway in Tennessee years ago and were inseparable from the day we met. We have gone through so much life together; I couldn’t imagine adulthood without this true blue friend.

I joked with her many times that physically she was so helpful with Jillian and emotionally she was so helpful as I worked through some challenging “threenager” stuff with Sadie. She just wrapped up the 3s stage with her oldest (I feel like I just went to her baby shower yesterday!), so she can empathize with the joys and challenges this development stage brings for everyone. We had the best time, and her visit meant the world. We love you big, Jess!

Some high school cheerleaders were advertising their cheer clinic outside of Hadley’s school recently, and their advertising worked on Jamie because he immediately looked up info when he got to work after dropping her off. We decided to sign up both girls for a Saturday morning of fun, and they loved it! Sadie was a little nervous to go, but being there with Hadley was more than enough of a security blanket for her.

Do you know what your kids’ love languages are? I’m pretty sure Hadley’s is physical touch (she’s such a snuggler), but Sadie’s is 100% quality time. Spending time with her doing anything overflows her tank. If I had all the time in the world to just focus on Sadie 24/7, she would be the happiest human alive.

Unfortunately I can’t realistically give all of myself to Sadie, which irritates her a bit. Imagine that! 😉 But goodness… when she gets that quality time (something I’m intentionally working harder on giving all of my kids, and my husband too), she is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. Admittedly I find it hard to stop what I’m doing to get on their level and do little kid things with them sometimes (not a strength of mine), but seeing this girl light up like a Christmas tree when I do makes me very, very happy. I love you, Sadie girl.

For my first postpartum run, I headed to a local trail and took Hadley with me! She rode her Strider bike for two miles while I ran, and we had a blast!

It’s funny how babies love to be on their bellies. I let Hadley and Sadie sleep on their bellies early on, but we aren’t with Jillian because we need her to be a better infant sleeper than her sisters were. 😉 She’s doing well being swaddled and being on her back in her bassinet, but her favorite place of all to sleep is…

… the DockATot. I know there are soooo many warnings out there to only use this thing as a lounger and not as a place for them to sleep, but dang it, she sleeps her absolute best in it! I let her take naps in it occasionally, and she loves it.

A cute romper, mama’s lipstick, and some fancy shoes. Happy Sadie.

My parents and sister’s family came over for homemade pizza last week, and Dad asked if we could try to get a picture of them with all the grandkids. I must have taken 30 pictures rapid fire attempting to just get one decent one. I love this.

This past Saturday morning found us all lounging in pajamas until around 10 (it had been FOREVER since we had a slow Saturday morning like this as a family) before getting dressed and heading to Monte Sano mountain. We “hiked” for about an hour, letting the kids determine our pace as they discovered dozens of “cool” things. We then played on the playground for a while before grabbing some lunch with neighbors.

After lunch we went home and did NOTHING the rest of the day, and it was beyond glorious. Everybody showered and put on pajamas by 3 p.m. and watched way more Netflix than we should have. IT WAS AWESOME.

One baby item we were missing was a high chair. I donated our old one since A.) I thought we were done having kids and B.) it was gross. I was planning to eventually buy an inexpensive IKEA one, but then we saw this brand new one at an estate sale! Score! It was only $12 and is actually the same GRACO one we had previously, so we know it’s awesome. I love that it reclines and has a five-point harness so that Jillian can already use it. Having one more place to plop her is fantastic. Ha!

Somebody really, really loves bath time!

Hadley lost her first tooth! The girls had dentist appointments on Monday, and Hadley freaked out when the hygienist told her she had some loose bottom teeth. She was so excited. She came home and wiggled one particular tooth for HOURS, and it finally came out when Jamie was brushing her teeth before bed. Once we knew it was probably coming out, I took one last picture of her complete baby teeth smile.

In true Hadley fashion, she started crying happy tears as soon as she came running out to tell me she lost her tooth. I think she was just so overcome with excitement that this milestone was finally here. I’m telling you – she has been DYING to lose a tooth ever since her friend lost one at the beginning of school last year. The tooth fairy made a trip to the ATM and left $5. Is that a good amount?? What’s the going rate these days? Ha!

Whew! That was quite the brain/camera roll dump! Thanks for reading!! xo

Let’s chat!

I really thought once the girls were back in school that I’d have more time to sit down and share on this blog. FUNNY JOKE! That has been far from the case. Here is a screenshot of a post I tried to work on last week that QUICKLY was interrupted by my sweet baby girl. 😉

In my kitchen I constantly have two to-do lists: a daily one and an ongoing on. When I make my daily one, I usually try to grab at least one task from my ongoing one to knock out.

But you know what ends up happening with my daily to-do list? I end up re-writing almost the exact same one for the next day because so little is getting done around here besides laundry, dishes, and keeping everybody fed. 😉 My to-do list feels like “whack-a-mole”, and that I can basically pick one thing during Jillian’s morning nap time to tackle, and THAT’S IT! Everything else will have to wait until tomorrow, or the next day, or the next week, or never. Whatever, man!

But you know what? We’ve been having so much fun!! Since we are juggling more with adding Jillian to the fam, we have been trying to seize quiet moments and just have fun! Playing games, browsing stores just for the heck of it, going out to dinner with friends, lots of hang time with loved ones, watching movies… it’s all been keeping us sane amidst the absolute MAYHEM that July and August have been.

But we’re in a very sweet season of life right now and I feel very hashtag blessed. 😉 We all know that life’s ups and downs come and go constantly it seems (gracious knows we have our share of chaos and hardship from time to time, many that I don’t share here), but in this moment, we’re feeling pretty good. Because things can change on a dime, I always want to stop and thank God for the moments of calm when all the puzzle pieces seem to fit together.

I have so may pictures on my camera roll that I’d love to share, so here’s a first batch. I’ll hopefully hop on to share another batch tomorrow to stay caught up. I mean, this blog does serve as my kids’ baby books, so I can’t fall behind, ya know?? 😉

Slice of Life: The first 10ish days of August

The biggest events from the beginning of August revolved around the girls going back to school (I wrote a whole post about that here, including Hadley’s first day of Kindergarten), but here’s a slice of our lives with other happenings too.

My sister’s family is still here in Madison while my brother-in-law has some time off work, and we’ve absolutely loved spending time with them. They’ve been busy and we’ve been busy, but when we’ve been able to spontaneously get together for a meal or hang time for the kids, it’s been the absolute best.

One of my dearest friends Jenna (the knock out in white pants and striped gray top) moved to Birmingham last week, so recently a group of us from church went out to lunch as a little send-off. During the meal, Jenna shared with us that she’s expecting a baby after a long infertility journey (that we have all walked through with her), and it was the BEST MOMENT EVER. (She is public about all of this, by the way.) We all gasped in sheer disbelief as she was about to say it, and the entire table started crying with shock and happiness. It was the most unexpected, joyful moment shared with friends that brings tears to my eyes just typing about.

I love walking through life with this group of women and am just so thankful for how the Lord placed them and their families in our lives last year after we moved here.

Plug into your church, friends. It can be uncomfortable and not fun at first, but put yourself out there. Say “yes” more. Attend a life group. Serve. The connections you’ll make with other believers is SO WORTH IT.

This girl will kill me for sharing this, but having a neighbor bestie who genuinely loves babies and wants to hold yours every time you’re together is AMAZING. We adore our “Miss Ah-wiss-a”. <3 She is the best.

My sister snapped this picture of Jillian and me with my grandmother, and I treasure it. I don’t have many pictures with her because rarely do we stop to snap them during ordinary moments together, so this one is special.

Two nights before school started, we had a little “Family Night Out”. We walked around our beautiful outdoor shopping center, ate dinner at Red Robin, and pierced Sadie’s ears! Did you see the video on Instagram? She didn’t even flinch! It was so crazy. I think it’s saved in my “Sadie2” highlights! The girls also made wishes for the school year. Hadley wished for lots of new friends, and Sadie wished to pierce her ears… which we had already done two hours prior. Go figure!

Watching the cousin relationship blossom between my kids and Jennifer’s kids has been incredible. Seeing how much Hadley and Sadie LOVE being with Luke and Carly makes us all very happy! It’s funny how they all know they’re not just friends, but family. It’s honestly amazing how kids can differentiate these types of relationships. So sweet.

Hadley rides with Jamie to school, so while they get one-on-one time, I get some time with my littles before taking Sadie to school. We’re slowly finding new morning routines and liking them! Easing into the day with Sadie while Hadley is already at school is nice.

A few weeks ago I brought my kids over to my friend Erin’s house to have a cookout with her family while Jamie was away for the weekend at his best friend’s wedding (it was at the beach and obviously there was no way I could swing that kind of trip right now). When I walked in, Erin told me that her husband decided to go out with a friend and that she’d called one of our mutual friends Cara to come over with her girls. I squealed because I knew it was about to be the best. night. ever! Three mamas + eight kids = a TON of fun!

Do you remember when Teddy had back surgery last July and our vet became my friend? That’s Erin, who is now one of my closest friends here. Life is funny!

Getting Hadley off the bus in the afternoon is a highlight for Sadie! My niece Carly and my mom have come a couple of times to see her off the bus and hang with us, and it makes Hadley so happy!

Also… Sadie is going to be the death of me when it comes to her interest in dressing herself. I might as well throw away 75% of her closet because she only wants to wear a few things, including these Hello Kitty rain boots. Oy. This girl!!!

My sweet friend Heather and I both got this picture from our daughters’ teachers. Hadley and Raley were so pumped to be twinning in their Annie the Brave scientist dresses! Hadley wore her Under the Sea dress the next day, just in case Raley wore hers. 😉

By the way, did you see that Annie the Brave just released four new prints? I am FREAKING OUT because they’re soooooo GREAT! Continually so proud of my girl Chelsea and her mega hard work building her brand.

Alrighty, we’ll call it quits there! If you like keeping up with these random little updates, come back tomorrow! I’m going to do my best to have another load of pics and stories dumped here. 😉 Have a great Wednesday!

Boutique gyms with consistent class structure and instructors are popping up all over the world, and one of the biggest questions people ask me about my particular gym is the Orangetheory price.

I’d love to jump right in and answer that specific question for you about the Orangetheory price, as well as share a few other things with you about Orangetheory before you join. Spoiler alert: I AM HOOKED. It’s the first workout that I’ve ever done consistently for over a year. Big deal for me!

Orangetheory Price

I pay $139/month for unlimited classes at my local gym in Madison, Alabama.

(I have heard that this price is higher in larger, more expensive cities like Manhattan or Los Angeles, so know that what I pay may not be standard in big cities.)

When I first joined, I signed up for eight classes per month (Orange Elite) and paid $99. This was not enough classes for me (since I became hooked so fast), so I bumped up my membership to Orange Premier unlimited. I can now go to as many classes as I want for $139.

When I first signed up for unlimited though, it was $159/month. My Orangetheory price first decreased to $149/month when I signed a six-month contract. My price decreased by $10/month again during a promotion where one of my friends signed up and listed me as her referral. Orangetheory runs promotions like this often, so keep an eye out!

Orangetheory Heart Rate Monitor

When you join Orangetheory, you’ll be encouraged to buy a heart rate monitor. You will have two options: the monitor that you’ll wear around your upper arm for roughly $99 or the monitor that you wear under your shirt near the bottom of your bust for roughly $70. The upper arm band must be frequently charged, but many prefer this to wearing it under their shirt. I personally have the $70 monitor and don’t mind it in the slightest.

You can also buy these monitors in used condition on buy/sell/trade sites, but will need your local Orangetheory to sync it with your personal information.

Don’t skimp out on buying a heart rate monitor. This is the bread and butter of working out at Orangetheory!

Orangetheory Cancelation Fee

As long as you cancel 30 days in advance, there is no membership cancelation fee.

Can I freeze my Orangetheory membership?

Yes, you can freeze your membership, but you will be shared $15 per month during the freeze. I froze my membership right before and after I had my third baby. Technically Orangetheory will only honor your freeze for two months, but they will often make exceptions, so just talk with them.

What if I missed an Orangetheory class I’d signed up for?

At my local gym, members are charged $12 if they miss a class or if they cancel eight hours or less before the class begins. This policy is set in place to make sure that classes are filled to capacity if there are that many people who want to attend.

For example, say 50 people want to attend the Monday 5 a.m. class, but there are only 36 spots. If you cancel Sunday night at 8 p.m., someone on the waitlist will be notified that there is room for them. On the other hand, if you do not cancel until 11 p.m., someone on the waitlist may already be asleep and not be notified that there is a spot for them. That late of a cancel doesn’t give them enough time to make plans to attend the class. The best part about the $12 fee is that it holds you accountable for attending class, which is just the push that many people (including me) need.

Last week Jamie did the cutest thing for Hadley that made her think she has the greatest dad in the world (she does), and I thought the idea was too cute not to share with you all too!

After he dropped her off at school, he looked back and saw that she’d brought along her beloved stuffed cat Sophia and left it in the car. Something gave him the spontaneous idea to bring the stuffed animal to work with him and photograph all of Sophia’s adventures. When he walked in from work that night, he gave Sophia to Hadley and then got out his phone to show her what Sophia did that day.

Bring a Stuffed Animal to Work

I wish I would have thought to videotape her reaction, but I truly didn’t expect her to squeal with delight the way she did! With every picture, she howled with laughter and when he was done showing her the pictures, she threw her arms around Jamie’s neck and gave him the biggest kiss on the cheek, saying “Thank you Daddy!”

The only “problem” with Sophia’s day of adventuring was that Hadley assumed her stuffed dog Mocha was jealous and needed a day out as well (I mean DUH, DAD.) So, the next morning, Hadley greeted Jamie with Mocha and asked i an irresistible way if he could have a fun day at work too. Jamie could have said no, but he said yes and snuck that dog into his work backpack just liked he’d done with the cat the day prior.

Hadley counted down the minutes until Jamie got home and screamed when she heard the garage door open. She scrolled through his photos and laughed her head off, just like she’d done the day prior.

He was a trooper and did it one more time with her pet horse named Austin but then called it quits when she came out with a fourth stuff animal. 😉 He’s totally not against doing this again in the future just for fun when Hadley doesn’t expect it, but enough was enough for one week. Somebody’s gotta do some real work around here. 😉

Anyway, I thought this spontaneous “bring a stuffed animal to work day” thing was the cutest bonding activity between daddy and daughter and wanted to share the idea. It cost absolutely nothing but brought a heck of a ton of joy to not only our Kindergartener, but also to her dad who felt like he’d done something right in the parenting realm in that moment.

If your child’s beloved stuffed pet/baby doll/etc. goes on an adventure in the future, tag me on Instagram! Jamie, Hadley, and me would LOVE to see!

Let’s chat!

What is your child’s special item at the moment? Hadley calls herself a “cat mom” and adores this ratty gray cat!

Last Wednesday was Hadley’s big day to finally throw on her new glow-in-the-dark unicorn backpack (this obsession with unicorns may kill me, haha) and march confidently into Kindergarten. She has been taking speech at her new school for a while now via our school system, so she’s been more than ready to officially be a student there and do all of the things she’s always imagined that big Kindergarten kids get to do.

For years I’ve watched moms lament on social media about the array of emotions felt surrounding the big kindergarten send-off, and I always wondered how I would feel when it would be my turn to watch my oldest reach this milestone. Though we have a very close relationship, Hadley and I never had issues being separated from each other during her MMO/Pre-K years, so I wondered if I would be one of the oddballs who didn’t cry on this day.

As we began to inch closer to the first day though, I did start to feel a little anxious about what this new milestone meant. I knew she was about to be exposed to a whole new world, learn about new things that I’ve probably tried to protect her from, be on her own to make all new friends, and navigate her days with much more responsibility than she’s had before.

I think the second thing was the thing that made me more anxious than anything else.

Would her world be rocked when a kid shares with her something that he or she already knows about from an older sibling? If she hears about something new and confusing, will she internalize it or will she come home and share about it with me? These thoughts began to roll around in my head, but I also know that I’m raising a kid to live in our world and not in our tiny little bubble. I know this is all a big part of parenting and life in general.

The night before Kindergarten started out nice. My neighbor bestie Alyssa and I wanted to celebrate our daughters, so we all ate some funfetti cupcakes and took pictures of our Kindergarteners in a “Class of 2032” shirt. It was a sweet little celebration!

The rest of the night wasn’t quite full of books and excited snuggles like I hoped, but instead full of shuffling around to make sure everything was packed, putting out Sadie’s tantrum fires, and tending to a cluster-feeding Jillian. Hadley was shuffled to bed pretty quickly, but later that night I went in to snuggle her sleeping body for a bit. I was surprised to find myself tearing up as I held this little girl who didn’t feel so little. I prayed many different prayers over her, and then put myself to bed as well.

On the morning of her big day, Jamie and I were up and at ’em at 5 a.m. We both wanted to walk her in to her classroom, so that meant Sadie and Jillian had to come to. Miraculously, everyone was fed, dressed, overly excited, and ready to go by 6:55 a.m. THREE CHEERS!

A printed poem was handed out to all the parents, which definitely got to Jamie once he read it in his truck after drop-off, but I managed to hold it together. I felt super calm seeing how happy she was. She was very settled, her teacher is adorable and definitely knows what she’s doing, and we love her little school.

So I headed up to the library with Sadie and Jillian after drop-off to attend the hilarious “Boo Hoo Breakfast” with a couple mom friends where we drank coffee, ate some breakfast foods, and hung out a bit before leaving school. It was nice.

I wondered about her all day and couldn’t wait to see her. We opted to have her ride the bus home on the first day since that’s what will work best for our family routinely, but I was admittedly very nervous and felt terrible that I wasn’t picking her up myself. But she assured me she wanted to take the bus, and her teacher promised she would be well taken care of getting settled on the right bus.

I took a video of the bus pulling up, and Hadley barreled off of it with a smile worth a million bucks. I tear up every time I watch it. She’s proudly wearing an “I rocked my first day of Kindergarten” hat and ran toward me full force. It was precious. Riding the bus has been going so, so well! I truly had nothing to worry about there.

Moving on to my Sadie girl!

She started her three-year-old class at her preschool and had the best day yesterday! We had her open house on Tuesday, and though she was a little confused why her teachers from last year wouldn’t be her teachers this year, she was super happy to see a bunch of familiar faces in her new classroom. She was shy with me at Open House, but as soon as we dropped her off for her first official day, she bolted right for the table with Play Doh and a few friends she already knew. Cutie pie!

She was a chatterbox the entire way home, and I loved listening to her stories. She got to eat an ice cream sandwich as a treat when she got home for not battling/tantruming before school, so that made her extra happy. We are not above hefty bribes around here!

She couldn’t wait to pick up Hadley from the bus stop and tell her all about her day. Their conversations are so freaking CUTE.

For Jillian’s and my first official morning together just the two of us, we ran by my friend Jenna’s house to give her a hug before she moves to Birmingham this week, and then headed home to start prepping to host a big family dinner. We have relatives in town from Seattle, so the three of them plus my parents and my sister’s family all came over for dinner and hang time. It was an awesome evening.

Now that both kids are in school, we are looking forward to finding a routine that leaves us all in a nice groove. I know things will constantly change throughout the next year as Jillian grows and changes, but for now we are extremely excited that all of the anticipation of a new baby and Hadley starting “real school” is behind us.

Let’s chat!

What are some of your favorite back to school traditions? How did you feel when you sent your kid(s) off to Kindergarten?

Meet Erica

Hi! I'm Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you!

I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today's ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what's on our kitchen table, what we're hanging in our closets, where we're traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos.

I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I'm here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it's going so well!) I'm a super proud mom to two little girls (ages 5 and 2) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason - they're pretty great!)

I'm so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo